WWRC 97-05eee
GIS and the Wyoming Water Resources Center

Abstract
The Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Lab at
the Wyoming Water Resources was established in
1992. The mission of the Lab is similar to that of the
overall mission of the WWRC, involving four major
components: (1) Applied Research; (2) University
and State GIS Support; (3) Information Transfer; and
(4) Education and Training.

Funded primarily through state and federal grant
monies, the WWRC GIS Lab's primary focus is on
conducting applied GIS research associated with all
aspects of natural resource management, from
groundwater vulnerability assessment and wellhead
protection, to basin water use inventories, cutthroat
trout habitat mapping, and wetlands management. In
1994, the WWRC GIS Lab become a participant in
the Wyoming Initiative, a state/federal, multi-agency
partnership established to address coal mining and
reclamation issues in Wyoming's Powder River
Basin (e.g., hydrologic modeling, electronic
permitting, and technology transfer). Last year, the
Lab broadening the scope of its work by partnering
with the University of Wyoming's Institute for
Energy Research to establish the Spatial Data and
Visualization Center (SDVC). The SDVC's goal is
conduct both basic and applied research in the
geographic information sciences, with an emphasis
on decision support tools for natural resource
management in Wyoming.

In addition to its cooperative efforts with the
WWRC's Water Resource Data System, the
Wyoming Initiative and SDVC, the WWRC GIS Lab
provides both technical GIS assistance and digital
cartography support to University departments
affiliated with the WWRC and a wide range of state
and local entities, including the State Engineer's
Office, the Department of Environmental Quality,
and the interagency Snake River Corridor Project. In
addition, the WWRC GIS Coordinator also currently
serves as the University of Wyoming representative
to the Wyoming Geographic Information Advisory
Council.

In 1993, the WWRC GIS Lab initiated publication of
Wyoming HydroMaps. Widely distributed
throughout the state, this digitally generated map
series is designed to provide a spatially-based
overview of the many facets of Wyoming's water and
related land resources. Wyoming HydroMaps is just
one vehicle for realizing the WWRC GIS Lab's goal
of serving as a spatial data clearinghouse for natural
resource data for Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain
Region. The Lab's education function also extends
to provision of training and practical, "on-the-job"
experience to a number of undergraduate and
graduate students in a wide range of natural resource
related disciplines. Finally, the Lab also provides, in
cooperation with the Wyoming Initiative, GIS
application short course training for land and water
resource managers throughout the region.